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Runway in London

3:24:00 AM

Finally, after about 8 months of preparation, today aere is releasing the aere HOPE collection as previewed at KLFW 2016. 8 months seems like quite a long time right? But really, time flies so fast especially when we are juggling many things at the same time. aere was invited to participate for KLFW 2016 in February and then we had our first presentation meeting / pitch of ideas to KLFW, sketches and mood board in early March and after a lot of changes, resampling, re-sketching, and developing the collection we managed to finally showcase all our months of hard work only in August at KLFW. Boy oh boy, it really was a long process but at the end of the day it always feels like time is passing by so fast.

Bear in mind also from early on in the year I was also working on aere's FEEL Eid collection specifically for Raya and at the time we also had a fashion show at GKR in May. We had much more designs for aere this year compared to last year, for Raya. So I was doubly-busy at the time and I think I've also mentioned in my post before that we received opportunities we couldn't refuse (and we didn't) but I was just so short-handed at the same time. Thank God, aere's team is slowly growing now and I have more team members at the moment. And the same time, more new opportunities kept on coming as well, which means we are even busier than before which is great!

I blogged about the backstage chaos and drama during the KLFW show recently in my blogpost "KLFW 2016 : What Goes On Backstage", and intended to continue the story of how from conceptualising a collection it will become the final collection as seen on the runway but I have just been super busy to finalise the post. In summary, the conceptualization and story line of this HOPE collection has
actually started since November of 2015. Way before I gave the direction to aere's team and way before the team started with the first sketch.

Honestly, I've typed so much about it and it's still in my draft section here in the blog but just waaaiting to be published here but since its a super long post I really haven't had the time to sit down and finalise it. There's so many things going on with me and of course for aere at the moment, good unexpected opportunities and as much as I really, really miss blogging and sharing whatever that is going on, I really haven't had the time to and I'm really trying to squeeze in some time to at least share as much and as often as I can. I'll try to share it ASAP!

This takes me back to the time when I was recently in London for aere. The opportunity actually came right after I came back from Phuket for Raya with the family. It was for an exhibition which I will blog about (I try!). Since some of the runway samples for KLFW 2016 were done at the time, as it was so near before the show, I decided to bring and wear some to London. Khubayb accompanied and helped me out over there too and of course he took some OOTD photos of me on the streets of London in the runway pieces in between the exhibition and meetings.

For the shots taken in this post, it was taken on the day after the exhibition ended in London, we had a meeting with one of the buyers and stockists in London and these photos were taken near the venue. Here, I am wearing an all white combination of aere's ZONA Organza Heart Smock Top releasing today and aere's ROSEA Top inside together with aere's CERUS Pants.

I was so excited when I received this sample the first time before we resampled it again and again till we get the final and I finally approved it for production. Want to know why?

First reason : It's made of the finest organza fabric. If you've followed aere's KLFW 2015 show you would notice that there's aere's OPHELIA Organza Skirt which was just recently released a few months ago. Multilayer of organza fabric are used for the OPHELIA which makes me feel like a Disney princess every time I wear it. (Awh man, just realised I haven't shared the looks for the OPHELIA here when I went to events recently, will try to do so) But, the ZONA is aere's first ever organza top. So of course it's super special and so so dear to my heart.

Second reason : (and it's my favourite reason), because it is crafted using a unique heart shaped smocking technique. It brings back memories to my childhood days when I use to wear outfits (of course at the time either my mom or dad dressed me up) which has smocking features. The difference at the time is that, the gap of the gathers of the smocking I wore back then was really really tiny compared to this one. Anyways, just sharing, since the effect of smocking is created by gathering the fabric and stitching them together, it means that the fabric used is at least triple the times of a top with the same fit. The smocking technique was developed in England itself and I felt it was just right for me to actually wear aere's first ever smocking piece in England itself, my birthplace. :)

Oh, and Deeps also said that the top reminds her of an armour. I kind of agree with her, in a way. Like a shield or protector piece. So, when I wore it I imagined it being like an armour. Just like the nature of us ladies, we might look soft or feminine on the outside, but we're all actually strong in different ways going though our personal hidden struggles and challenges. What do you guys think?

Anyways, as I named the collection HOPE, I would like to start sharing my OOTD with this all white look here in the blog as I feel like the colour white represents HOPE the best.

Where there is HOPE, there is always light.

I've shared the story of the collection and the meaning, spirit and ideals of HOPE in a note card. The first few hundreds who purchase the pieces from aere HOPE collection will get the note card from me, a special gift, aere's paper bag and customised notebook. It's just a little token of my appreciation for all of you who have supported aere and are responsible for us being where we are now. So check out the release and share with me what you think at the comments section below :)

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